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it has certainly gone cooler very fast, only yesterday it was so hot. such a swift reversal of fortune as they say. but i have not been out at all, all day. i have found a new weather website to tell me what the temperature is outside. this weather website that i have found will also tell you how it feels too. they say taking into consideration wind etc.

what does feel like mean

The temperature displayed here refers to human thermal comfort. This value takes into account a number of environmental and personal factors, such as wind, air temperature, air humidity, and radiation from the Sun.

i dont know personally from first hand experience what it feels like, as i have not gone out of my flat. haha. i had thought of going out until i realise i dont need to. haha. there is nothing i have to do that cannot wait for another day to do.

earlier today in the morning, it was sunny. strong sunlight streaming into my lounge windows, and it did cross my mind that i maybe should take advantage of it and go out and sit in the sun. but the feeling passed. haha. and when next i look it was cloudy, so i can happily ditch that idea.

i am alone now in my flat, as both my friends have gone away. john, my usa friend have gone up north to visit friends, and simon have a break and has gone to his mum’s house in essex. so i have the place to myself. haha.

i dont mind either way really. as i do my own thing whether there are anyone here or not. but i do get nice meals out of them when they are here. simon cooked a delicious fried rice with pork before he left and i hadn’t intended to eat a lot of it, because i actually had my lunch earlier, but it was so delicious that i ate it all. that pork was so tender and i am still savouring it with my memory. i dont know how he did it, because when i cook pork it does get a bit hard. maybe it is because he used pork cutlets, so that might come from a part of the pig that is tender. whereas i always use shoulder pork and that is a bit tough.

he got that pork as part of the haul from the freezer hoard that has accummulated as a result of his mum’s foraging of reduced meats in her local supermarket. hope he brings some more when he comes back.

found some leftover in the fridge and could not resist finishing it off.

6.14pm 16.2C dry dark night .amazing that the temp has not dropped much since this afternoon.

i am rather pleased that the ginger and chilli are still the same price in brixton. i think it will always be, but they will change the amount we get according to the season. come winter, we get less, and hopefully we get more come summer. i find it lasts me from 2wks to 3wks. i find they are quite essential in my cooking now.

garlic i can do without, though simon seems to want it in his cooking. he is quite prepared to pay 50p each bulb, ( he just bought 3 bulbs of garlic from our local sainsburys where they are 50p each!) .

when in brixton u can get 4bulbs for 50p. he said the bulbs he buys are large ones, which he wants.

he is so typical of british people, he does not want to be fiddling about with the small cloves. like some people not wanting to eat fish because there are too many bones in them. or preferring chicken breasts because to them life is too short to be bothering with bones. well, i have realised that when people get something in their heads, some strange notions, it is hard to shift them. to me the meat or flesh that surround the bones are the most tasty part of the creature.

he does not realise that smashing the garlic cloves makes it easy to get the skin off. what i find is that the british garlic is so mild that i get no flavour in my cooking from them. that is why i stopped buying them.

recently i went to morrisons hoping to buy their topside beef joint which is £4.97 a kg, which is a ok price,( in brixton u can get this price all the time but maybe it is for cheaper cuts of beef. to me, i cannot tell which cut is better. to me they are all the same, because it is how u cook them that counts.) but it was all sold out, which may turn out to be just as well. because this afternoon i went to our local sainsburys to redeem simon’s shopping, to enter it in my nectar card, when i browse the store and saw 450mg beef pieces for £2. normal price £3.75. i was tempted to buy but i thought i shall just wait till the end of the day when they might be reduced to £1, when i shall buy the lot. haha. there were quite a lot of the packs that is why i suspect it might not be all sold out. anyway when i went there at 7pm, i found only one pack left, and it was marked down to 50p. so i got that. it is nice now and then to have beef slices in the stir fried veg. it gives a nice flavour to the dish. though if i have got more i might make a beef rendang out of it.

i have not suspected this local sainsburys so near me to reduce their food prices. they open till late, 11pm everyday even sundays as they are a convenience store and have different opening hours to the big stores which are governed by sunday shopping hours. since they open so late i always thought they dont reduce their prices. but this pack expires today, so i guess they have to sell it off by today.

people who shop there works in the govt offices nearby so they go for the ready meals. and the hot packs of takeaway lunch packs which seem to be so popular. so maybe raw meat is not so popular. the pricss are higher than the main stores.

whilst waiting, i cooked pork slices in ginger in my rice cooker when the rice is being cooked at the same time. i could substitute sliced beef for this instead of pork and it would turn out just as good.

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bird in the bush.

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this is an easy dish to make. all cooked in the same time and pot as the rice. this one is slices of pork with ginger and soya sauce.

i keep up with news from malaysia by following some blogs there, and this one mentioned gurney restaurant closing, and i googled it and found out that they are planning to build a undersea tunnel from penang to the mainland in that area. it is surprising that the blog owner did not know of this development, he never mentioned it. and he is usually very informative of developments in penang, like the extension of land on the seafront near gurney drive.

and i only found out by accident. it did say it is privately funded , so maybe that is why there is no public consultation which would be required if public money is involved, i suppose. i wonder who are the private firms behind it. they hope to make back their money with a toll. but who would want to use it when there is allready a bridge that is now there. the bridge has a toll fee, so this toll for the tunnel must be as cheap otherwise who would use it? . i fail to see the logic of this tunnel . must be quite rich private developers to finance such an expensive project as an under sea tunnel… even then i would have thought it must affect penangites, and the owners of businesses or land or housing that will be destroyed to accommodate that so surely some kind of public consultation should be required. but no one seem to make a fuss about it… so different from our heathrow airport extension.

i went to asda this morning, wanting to buy pork, they are selling shoulder pork for £2.50/kg. i bought a 2.5kg joint for £6.16. i have divided it into 4 portions and they are in my freezer now for eating over the next month or so. whilst there i had a look at their reduced shelves, and saw whole 1.5kg chicken selling for £2. that is even cheaper than the one i bought a few days ago for £3. hmm, next time i want chicken i shall go to asda first. i bought another chicken, and will be roasting it. i am wondering whether i should make a curry out of it. but it seems a shame to cut it up. whole chicken are just perfect for roasting.

now i am waiting at home, for ian, to visit me. i want to have a nap , but dare not sleep in case i could not hear him ring my bell. ah well, now u know why i am such a recluse. with no one to visit me or me visit them. i can do what i like, sleep when i like, or not , go out when i like, and not have to hang around to keep an appointment. but people say it is good to have friends, and to keep in touch with them, much as it can be inconvenient. friends can be a mixed blessing. some people have to have others around them, they dont like to be on their own. they dont like their own company. for those people friends are crucial. they are necessary. but i think i am someone who dont mind being on my own. i enjoy it.

Voters are going to be told throughout the referendum campaign that the European Union affects their everyday lives. But how?

In its series Europe In 10 Objects, the Today programme is exploring the costs and benefits of the EU by looking in detail at objects people encounter in their daily lives.

the one about the sausage really interests me. why? because i have noticed the pork prices are always low,£2/kg , in the supermarkets, even when all the other meats, like chicken and beef jumps in prices so much. i wondered why? this one gave me the answer. because in uk, the very high standards imposed on british pig farmers to ensure their pigs are well cared for, are not enforced on the EU farmer, so they can rear their pigs cheaper than here, and so can sell pork cheaper than here, and because there are no barriers to trade, supermarkets can buy pork from them and sell it to us cheaper than buying british pork.

if uk leaves the EU, pork will go up in price. i wont like it but i would still vote leave.

i rather pay more for the pork if it means getting back our own decision to make our own laws and regulations.

or forced to pay the UK share of the costs whenever they make deals like the one they make with Turkey, for which they never ask the other members to vote on. that turkey vote seems to be taken by only a few people (who are they , no one knows) and the rest are expected to approve it and just go along with it. u might argue that the uk share is only(?) £500million compared to the 6billion euros promised. but depand on it, they will get the money from us through other means. maybe as part of a budget increase to pay for it. i think by us leaving it will concentrate their minds as they cannot rely on this huge amount of money the uk contributes to the budget. it might stop their profligate spending, and the other members might thank us for it. as it is there is this report about them wanting to have their own members car pool and chauffeurs to move them between the two capitals.

as it is we have to toe the line when it is EU laws, but we could not even enforce our own higher standards for pigs on them. just goes to show how little power we have to change the EU>

actually the report using the sausage to illustrate it is not really very apt. it is the pork price that is low, but sausage prices are high even now. sausages are processed goods, and so their price is jacked up… if we leave the EU, sausage prices will still be high. it wont change. they might not even raise it as they should if we leave, because the public may not buy it.

as it is, with all the scare stories about sausages, (and bacon) there might allready be a drop in sales.

its a good series, so far they have shown how the mobile phone, and time directive and pork prices have been influenced by the EU.

about the time directive,(a bad thing it seems esp for truck drivers but to others it might make them stop working so much and becoming a danger to themselves and to others) and mobile roaming charges (supposedly a good thing, though i myself would like to charge those talking on their mobile phones a lot more just to discourage them haha. than i dont have to keep overhearing their loud conversations. so if it were me, i would increase the roaming charges.

i had asked who decided on the Turkey agreement, and then i read this in the daily telegraph newspaper business section this morning… it seems it is germany merkel, she has been accused of bouncing fellow member states into accepting it. even though in a emergency summit with ankara earlier on monday they could not come to a deal. in the same article, iceland prime minister says even large member states like uk wield ‘diminishing power’. when it comes to the big stuff, he said, the decision are made by two, or increasingly one country.

added. this article in the bbc news asks have uk really signed away its sovereignty? it seems it has, by signing the 1972 european communities act. which gives the European court priority over uk laws. u cannot call yourself sovereign if u then allow a foreign court to hand down laws that u cannot disobey. that is why i say the british people have been had by their politicians who signed up for the 1972 act. i daresay the politicians were fooled by the EU bureaucrats . those EU bureaucrats are experts at it, they are the ones who are experts at writing laws that can twist the meaning everyway they chose.

Rhodri Thompson QC, a specialist in EU law, puts it this way: “The basic relationship between UK and EU law has been clear since 1972 – Parliament remains sovereign but recognises the binding nature of EU law.

some clarity, huh? even the specialist is fooled. how he can say parliament remains sovereign under those conditions? more fool he, call himself an specialist in EU law. what a fool. with people like him advising us, no wonder we are in the mess we are in now.

and there is no way of taking the act and pick and chose who or what u want to obey. its either all the way in or get out.

i was wondering what to write about, when i opened my wordpress to write it, and i find everything looked very different. it takes a bit of getting used to… i wonder why they changed the format so much and so drastically, necessitating us having to learn all over again. ah well, i suppose it is necessary or so i hope. haha.

i was just thinking of writing a meandering post today like a stream of consciousness…

yesterday i went to the paddington library, and remembered there is a £1 shop nearby that sells razors. but i was unable to find the last set of razors i bought from them, which were 5 razors that can be fixed onto a holder. this time it was 6 disposable razors with its own holder. well, it is difficult to tell if these new ones i bought are longer lasting, and can be used more times than once. the only way is to buy them and use them. haha. it takes me quite a long time to finish them and if they are any good and i want to get some more, it is likely they will not be restocked when the time comes for me to buy some more. so my razors are very hit or miss and i dont have any favourite that i stick to come rain or shine or cost. when i go to the supermarket or boots the chemist and look at their stock of razors i am always surprised at how expensive they are.

with me, i always find the razors can be used a lot of times, because i only have a small amount of hair on my upper lip and chin. and i dont need to shave every day either. so i do save quite a bit of money on shaving equipment. i find i dont even need shaving foam, just soap can do.

men have to pay full VAT on razors, unlike women who only pay 5% VAT on their tampons. and what is more, some men have to shave everyday, whilst women only need the tampons on average 4days in a month, during their periods… one study said they will use average of 8 tampons a day durng those 4 days, so they dont really use a lot over a lifetime, even though one feminist said they spend a lot of money over a lifetime…i did wonder what women in olden days before tampons were invented, what they use. they were able to cope quite well. makes u wonder if modern women are a very whiney lot. they complain when they are premenstrual, and they complain when they are postmenstrual. ah , glad i am not a woman.

even then, the feminists have complained and wanted it to be VAT free… even saying mistakenly that men’s razors are VAT free. when they have been corrected that men pay full VAT on razors they dont issue an apology for telling lies.

i know one must not judge a whole group of people by the bad behaviour of some of them, but those few are very prominent feminists , so they really give the whole lot of them a bad name.

perhaps that is why so many men just let their hair grow a beard and moustache. though from my own personal experience i dont like kissing men with beards so i dont like my lovers having beards or moustaches.

i am surprised more women dont complain of their men folk having beards. and big bushy beards trap food when they eat. not a pleasant sight.

i read that people spend £100 a month on beauty products. my first thought was that it must mean women,with their makeup and all; because i cannot imagine how men can rack up that amount… until i realise it is the razors. some of them may have so much hair everyday, they will use up a razor a day. and if they include contact lens as a beauty product, after all, it is to make them look good too instead of wearing glasses, than u can see how the cost mounts up.

today i saw morrisons online website were having shoulder pork for £2/kg, so decided to go there today and buy it.

i nearly miss seeing it, as it was hidden under neath the shelves right at the back.

i bought 2packs, one £4.80, the other £3.70, which is more than i usually buy but i thought i shall be using them anyway and so stock up. they are a good price, the cheapest that i can find on sale anywhere. and they are not fatty either. some of the leg joints costing more have more fat on them. they are meant to be roasted and that might explain why they want so much fat on them. as it is attached to the skin, which people like for the crackling.

i cut up and freeze one pack(i am able to make 4 portions from it). when unfreezed later, those individual 4 packs can make at least 8meals and as many as 12. so in any dish, using these pork, the pork portion costs from 33p -50p each dish. from this u can get an inkling of why meat in a dish for me can cost so little.

and made a soya sauce stewed pork dish with the other. soya sauce pork is really easy to do and delicious. if u got chinese dried mushrooms it is even better because the mushrooms soak up the soya sauce and the salt makes them delicious. the mushrooms also gives the stew a lovely flavour. i dont have mushrooms, so did not use them, but the stew is just as nice, since i put in cinnamon. if u got aniseed, and cardomon they can be even better. but it is not necessary, i did not use them as i dont have any.

i did find some powdered mixed spices in a bottle, left over from somewhere so i threw that in. haha.

i know, this is a funny recipe where half the ingredients i mention i dont use, because i dont have them, but really it is good whether u use them or not. i have found that really a lot of stuff is not that necessary if u have the one important ingredient. the soya sauce is the important ingredient.

this new format seem to give more prominence to categories, instead of tags. to this day i dont know what the categories are good for, so i never use it. oh well, here goes, posting it right now.

added, i searched a bit to see what others have said about the new wordpress, and saw this link ,’ introducing our new editor’. i read it on the newsletter that came in my reader, but did not think it applies to me. after all, they often talk of new looks that people can download to alter the appearance of their weblogs, so i thought it was another one of those. but i see it does affect me, (even though i did not download it) and they call it ‘editor’.

i got an email from ikea, telling me they are giving all ikea membercard holders a free meal. a free main course and dessert, during this period from mother’s day sunday 15march – friday20march.

well i am looking forward to eating a meal there. my branch of ikea is wembley. and i have never eaten their meals, even though i heard so much about their meat balls. haha. though i am more attracted to having either the fish and chips , or more likely the lambshank. it is not often i eat lambshank. but whatever it will be rather pleasant to decide when i get there.

i will be going there on monday, because i can get free coffee on weekdays with the members’card; but also i am hoping the weekdays esp monday will be quieter. . it would be nice to bring a friend along who is also a member, but i dont know anyone. the plus side to going alone is that i can go whenever i like and dont have to hurry to keep to the arranged time.

mother’s day… simon was telling me is his mum’s birthday too. so i said well isn’t that good, u need only buy one present and make it do for both. but he said not with my mum, she will blow a gasket if i do that. haha.

thankgoodness i dont to bother with it; not that i have a mother living to buy a present for.

i am rather absentminded about presents, i forgot my father’s 80th birthday too.

that is a rather special birthday with the chinese.

remember? i sent a email notifying some friends who i lost touch with of my new mobile number; well i got replies from them, and that is nice to keep up with their news. one of them replied and among other news he tells me he is going to malaysia in May for his mum’s 80th birthday.

time really flies, i can remember his mum when she comes to visit him in london, must be a long time ago; she likes to come on her own as his father dont like travelling. she is a very nice person. so it is a chance for her to enjoy a holiday from being a carer to him.

and now she is 80… all these signs of time passing which means we are getting old too… i asked him to take note of all the changes that must have happened in malaysia, and to tell me of it. i have not gone back for more than 10yrs.

his father is now suffering dementia. and that must be a big change for a start.

i was at the library and read an advert from morrisons about £1.98/kg shoulder pork. so i went there and found two with no skin. that way of presenting the pork i have not seen before. usually they wrap a skin round it to make crackling when roasted and that means there is a lump of fat below the skin.

but i think they realise there are some of us dont want to roast it, because for the first time i see these two packs with no skin. and i have cut them up to freeze in separate small portions and they are very lean. hardly any fat at all. so i am rather pleased about that…

i find that area , camberwell, where the morrisons is a very ethnically mixed atmosphere, with a hustle and bustle that i really like to see.

shops crowded with people all doing their own thing, i do like to see that. i dont like places that are deserted and lifeless.it makes me realise i am truly a city person, as i like the crowds. there is a noodle shop there with a sign on the window saying all you can eat for £6. well in chinatown one dish may cost £6.

there was a large sign advertising lycramobile outside this shop where the bus stop was, and it says 1p/min for calls to nigeria. and free calls and text for all lycramobiles to call each other in uk.

if i like to call my family overseas i would certainly go for these mobiles providers. and make sure all my friends have the same provider so we can all get free calls in uk. maybe that is why they are everywhere being sold in london. lebara does similar cheap overseas calls too. but since i dont call family in malaysia, it is better that i go for the sainsburys sim card instead. though the sainsburys dont do free calls to fellow sainsbury phones. ah well, cant have everything i suppose. haha.

i am surprised that a lot more schools dont do it allready. what with two major religions, banning it, it is inevitable that pork is going to be kicked out.

look at airlines, they have long ago removed pork from the flight meals.

so it looks like no more pork sausages for the kids, because that is where all the pork gets in any school meal.

u would not expect school meals to be pork chops do you??? haha. for one thing, those kids dont have adult dentition to handle pork chops.

have you wondered why beef is not taboo too#? the hindus wont eat it, so how come they are still serving it? i suppose the hindus are not so fanatical about others eating it. unlike the other two religions, who do make a fuss.

religion!!! they are the cause of the majority of strife in this world.

though i think we humans do like fighting each other, so if there is no religion, i am sure we shall invent something else like it just so we can find an excuse to go make war and kill each other.

that is why i dont mind if we humans go extinct. haha. it seems to someone observing us from space, we are a bloodthirsty lot, and it is only with great effort and many laws that try to control us from slaughtering each other.

though a lot of hindus are now thinking they are too lenient about it and allowing other religions, notably the muslims, and to a lesser extent the christians muscling in and stealing their followers.

so many hindus in india are joining political parties that try to be strict about hindus observations. many are realising that they must get more demanding about insisting others follow their requirements too and start making a fuss about it. they figured if u dont make a fuss, u will be stamped on and liberties taken with your religion.

what is to bet somewhere , maybe in uk perhaps, there will come a time when a hindu will object to selling beef. haha. after all, a muslim can do so and be catered to.

and one day a vegetarian will be exempt from selling meat.

this report shows that it is banned only in primary schools, not in secondary schools, because they say young kids cannot tell what has pork in it and so the teachers have to monitor them to ensure they keep to their tradition, and that supervision is costly.

it make me realise that really there is no need for airlines to ban pork, because those who cannot eat it, can chose not to order it. but i guess those people may object to having it on the menu. people with religion can be hell of a fusspots. i know in malaysia, some muslims object to sharing the food halls with other hawkers selling pork, they say they dont like sharing the cutlery, but they might even say they dont like being in the same room as people who eat pork. so that muslim food courts are entirely separated from the others.

i can imagine they wont want to be eating with others. that makes for a segregated community, and voluntary separation. not a good thing in my opinion, but that is religion for you. very divisive i find and no where is the tolerance.